Japan Supports Cryptocurrencies but Why Not ICOs?

China has been very unforgiving to cryptocurrency to the extent that the crypto-world has moved on without its support. The ban on ICOs and crypto-exchanges in China has stagnated the market in China further. If China wasn’t willing to step up to the plate, the crypto-world thought, maybe the other Asian countries would. And boy, did they?!

Japan Could Ban ICOs

Korea and Japan are the other two countries that were chosen to pass the cryptocurrency baton. While Korea still hesitates, Japan has welcomed digital currencies with open arms. Japan has shown that it is more accepting of cryptocurrencies, even dubbing Bitcoin, the biggest of them all, a legal tender a few months prior. Amidst all this friendship, however, people in Japan still think that there might be an ICO ban on its way.

Asian Countries are the Largest Market for Cryptocurrencies & despite China’s Approach

The Asian Cryptomarket itself has been dominating in the world, be it mining the cryptocurrency or its trading volumes. China has been adopting a fairly inflexible and stringent approach to cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, the country seems progressively less appealing for the cryptocommunity.

Interest in cryptocurrency itself however, is far from dead. It has reached all-time high. There has been an increased interest in cryptocurrencies in the Asian Market as a whole as the supply rejected by China has been picked up by other countries.

China has led the way in its plans to ban cryptocurrencies, and South Korea has imitated those plans. Understandably there has been considerable objection by entrepreneurial lobbies in the country. Taiwan, on the other hand, despite being nearest to China, has been planning to be more supportive of ICOs, virtual currencies and blockchain as a whole.

What’s Japan’s Story

Japan is known to be one of the earliest investors in the currency. They have a huge stake in the market of cryptocurrencies. The market is trading over 60% of the world’s Bitcoin.

But despite of Asia viewing Japan as a very liberal “haven” for cryptocurrency, Japan is still very risk averse and conservative as a country. This is what one digital token wallet cofounder and “bitcoin-influencer” Koji Higashi had to say of Japan. In his view, there is still a very real possibility of an ICO crackdown happening in Japan.

Japan is not supportive of ICOs just yet. It’s too early to say if it is. Regulators are being tentative about it for now, trying to keep a low profile, figuring out whether it will be good or bad for the economy. They may start more stringent regulations once they see it is becoming a threat for the economy if problems start to happen.

Higashi is not saying ICOs are set up for failure in Japan, he says that if testing is done and ICOs pass, they might just be the revolutionary product that they need. Seeing the growth of ICO projects worldwide, if japan gives the go ahead for ICOs, it will have a head start. This may already be happening as companies are moving their projects to Japan. Japan will probably earn a fair share of tax revenue from these companies if ICOs take off, but it is just too early to say anything as of now.

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